Dechert LLP announced today that Edward L. Pittman has joined the financial services practice as Counsel in the Washington, D.C. office. Pittman was most recently Senior Counsel at Thelen LLP.

Pittman’s practice focuses on advising broker-dealers and money managers. He has a broad range of practical and legal exposure to the financial services industry, including matters relating to capital market structure, operations, ethics-related corporate issues, and the creation of internal compliance procedures. His clients have included the large clearing firms and global transfer agents, as well as national securities exchanges, ECNs, algorithmic trading firms, investment banks, soft dollar brokers, exchange specialists, market makers, advisors, and boutique merger and acquisition firms. He counsels clients on formation issues, advocates policy positions before financial regulators, and represents clients in enforcement proceedings and data requests from FINRA and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). He previously served on the staff at the SEC and has been chairman and president of two mutual funds.

A graduate of the University of Florida (B.A.), Pittman also has degrees from University of Florida Levin College of Law (J.D.), where he was executive editor of Florida Law Review, and Georgetown University Law Center (LL.M).

An international law firm of more than 1,000 lawyers, Dechert LLP has top-ranked practices in corporate and securities, complex litigation, finance and real estate, and financial services and asset management. The firm has more than 150 financial services lawyers in the United States, Europe, and Asia who advise on a full spectrum of legal services, including fund formation and offerings; investment company and investment adviser regulation; broker-dealer regulation; bank regulation (including common and collective trust funds); insurance production regulation; derivatives regulation; tax structuring; and securities enforcement and litigation. The Legal 500 has cited our “market-leading reputation for hedge funds,” while CogentHedge named us one of the top three onshore legal advisers globally serving hedge funds. Chambers USA and Chambers UK ranked Dechert No.1 for investment management in 2008, placing us in the top tier of investment management practices for a fourth year in a row.